Education – Family Council

Legislators Ask Arkansas Department of Education About Delays in EFA Reimbursements

Jun 22, 2026Jerry CoxEducationEducation, Home School, LEARNS

On Friday, the Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC) accepted a subcommittee’s approval of new Education Freedom Account (EFA) rules from the Department of Education. During discussion of the rules, lawmakers asked staff members from the Department of Education about delays in EFA reimbursements, and the department acknowledged that approval currently takes 30 days.

Arkansas created the EFA program in 2023, making it possible for students to use public funds to pay for an education at a public or private school or at home. Thousands of homeschool students have taken advantage of the program and test scores show they are excelling.

But earlier this spring the Arkansas Department of Education approved new administrative rules restricting how homeschoolers spend EFA funds on extracurricular activities and establishing complicated preapproval and reimbursement requirements for homeschoolers. Homeschoolers submitted comments to the State and testified in committee that approval for EFA expenses already takes weeks or months. The process created under these rules could take even longer.

The Arkansas Legislature’s Administrative Rules Subcommittee approved the rules without objection at its June 15 meeting, following some three hours of testimony from the Department of Education and from homeschoolers who are deeply concerned about changes the rules make to the EFA program.

On June 19, ALC accepted the subcommittee’s approval of the rules, but Sen. Terry Rice (R — Waldron) asked the Department of Education about the lengthy delays in approvals and reimbursements under the EFA program.

During discussion, the Department of Education indicated it has chosen to review EFA expenses and reimbursements in-house using department staff instead of outsourcing that responsibility to its vendor, Class Wallet, who is helping the state administer the EFA program.

The department also acknowledged that it currently takes its staff approximately 30 days to review expenses and approve reimbursements for homeschoolers, but says it is committed to reducing that timeframe.

You can watch the lawmakers’ discussion with the Department of Education here.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Proposed EFA Restrictions Do Not Appear on State Board of Education Agenda

Feb 10, 2026Jerry CoxHome SchoolEducation, Home School, LEARNS

The State Board of Education is scheduled to meet at 12:30 PM this Thursday, February 12, at the Arkansas Department of Education Building located at Four Capitol Mall in Little Rock. The meeting agenda is available here.

It appears the board does not plan to vote on proposed rules prohibiting homeschoolers from using Educational Freedom Account (EFA) funding to pay for team sports under the LEARNS Act.

Family Council has reached out to state officials about the status of the proposed rules. Sources tell us that the board may choose to “table” the rules for discussion later on. The situation is still very fluid, so we will let you know if we learn of any changes between now and the State Board of Education meeting on Thursday.

Here is a little more information about the situation:

In January the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the Department of Education planned to move forward with rules prohibiting EFA spending on team sports under the LEARNS Act despite public comments from more than 200 citizens who oppose them. Family Council and its homeschool division, the Education Alliance, were among those who submitted public comments against the proposed rules.

At the time, there was talk that the State Board of Education could cast a final vote on the rules at its February meeting.

The Department of Education’s proposed EFA restrictions go beyond what state law allows.

The restrictions would completely prohibit any EFA spending on registration fees, equipment costs, dues, and any costs associated with club or team sports.

Arkansas law clearly caps spending in these areas at 25% of a student’s total EFA funding, which means no more than one-fourth of a student’s EFA money can go toward team sports and extracurricular activities. The Department of Education wants to prohibit spending on team and club sports altogether.

Many homeschoolers have also pointed out that completely prohibiting EFA spending on team sports is unfair because public schools fund team sports with state money.

At this time it looks like the State Board of Education will not vote on the EFA restrictions at its February meeting this Thursday. Our office plans to monitor the situation. If the board decides to vote on the rules, we will let Arkansas’ home schoolers know.

Where Has All the Creativity Gone?

Jan 29, 2026John StonestreetEducationEducation

Is This The Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture? That was the question asked by a recent Atlantic article about the sheer number of prequels, sequels, remakes, and expanding “cinematic universes.” Among the most notable recent examples in the world of film is Wicked, which reimagined the world of Oz.

The same creative stagnation can be seen in music. While earlier generations could produce distinct kinds of music, it’s increasingly difficult to find meaningful stylistic differences today. Some of the most popular songs aren’t even composed by humans but generated by AI. Where has all the creativity gone?

Many explanations could be offered, but one deserves particular attention. There’s been a precipitous decline of the kind of education in America that awakens the moral imagination, enabling students to think creatively and innovatively within a framework of what is enduring and true. In its place is an education oriented around expressive individualism, where children are encouraged to “follow their hearts” and “look inside,” rather than first know the true, good, and beautiful.

Classical Christian education is uniquely positioned to fill this void. At its best, the modern classical education movement seeks to recover what Dorothy Sayers described as “the lost tools of learning.” Such an education—centered on great books, great ideas, and classical languages—aims not merely at information transfer but at the formation of a virtuous life. Students are trained in virtue, encouraged to emulate heroes, and invited to explore and embrace visions of greatness. In the process, many develop a lifelong love of learning.

Vigen Guroian offers a compelling account of this formative process in his book Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classical Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination. He explains how classic children’s stories like Pinocchio, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe can shape a child’s moral imagination. Young readers are transported into worlds filled with wonder, surprise, and danger. As they imagine themselves alongside heroes and heroines, the images and metaphors of the stories linger and shape how they experience the real world. Children internalize concrete pictures of good, evil, love, and sacrifice by which they can interpret their own lives. When the moral imagination is awakened, Guroian concludes, the virtues come alive with personal, existential, and social significance.

C.S. Lewis made a similar point in The Abolition of Man. After criticizing the dominant educational models that fail to form human beings, he described how education should cultivate students “with chests.” The “chest” mediates between reason and appetite, enabling students to not only recognize what is noble and what is base, and discern between that which deserves love and that which does not, but to also choose rightly between them. This moral formation reflects what makes us truly human.

If popular culture is to experience a renewal of genuine creativity and innovation, classical Christian education may well be the taproot. Ironically, the renewal of innovation doesn’t begin by encouraging innovation for it’s own sake, or from an obsession with what is trendy or new. Rather, it will begin with an immersion in what is permanent and true. It will begin with curious hearts and minds that are trained to think imaginatively within a meaningful moral framework. As Russell Kirk once observed, the works that endure are not those rooted in nihilism, but those that appeal to enduring truths and therefore to posterity.

If classical education is to be Christian, it must be tied to the grand biblical story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. Learning that is interpreted through a Christian worldview will affirm the dignity of human nature and will also acknowledge its limits, clearly distinguishing between Creator and creation. Within this rich moral universe, students are inspired to imagine and create in ways that honor what is true, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, and praiseworthy.

Classical Christian education offers a compelling model for education in an age of cultural decadence. It is anchored in Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” By forming the moral imagination, Christians are equipped to not only resist cultural stagnation but to create culture anew, as co-laborers with the One who even now is “making all things new.”

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Andrew Carico.